St Albans Centurions can finally reveal their new head coach. Club secretary Tony Bottomley today confirmed that current Cambridge University head coach and London Broncos U19’s assistant coach, Andy Champ will be taking over at the helm of the Cents in February 2013, after he has taken his Cambridge University team to the Varsity Match against Oxford.

Secretary Bottomley said “We are extremely lucky to get a coach of Andy’s ability. His credentials speak for themselves. He played hooker for Hemel Hempstead and was a Scottish international. He has played union and coached league at Bedford, Cambridge Uni and the Broncos, he is recognised as an up and coming young coach. I went down to Wembley stadium to meet him and found that whilst we had been doing our homework about him, Andy had been doing his homework about us, and liked what he found. He was as keen to join the Cents as we were to have him. He believes there is a great deal of potential in our club, and wants to be part of it. I look forward to working with him in the future.”

The Centurions will be holding a ‘Meet The Coach’ session at our clubhouse on Monday 14th January at 7.30pm when we hope as many players and supporters will come along and hear what Andy has to say and answer any questions we may have. Andy has already said that the first six weeks of pre-season will be two sessions a week and concentrate on fitness levels and he hopes to discuss his methods and rugby philosophy with the players - first teamers, development squad and even first timers who want to come along and give rugby a go.

Good news indeed. Now we know Cents have a coach, all we need to know now is what league they will be playing in .... with which other teams ........ and when the season starts.

(Didn't the people (RFL ?) in charge say all would be announced before Christmas so teams would have plenty of time to prepare/make arrangements etc. for the forthcoming season.)

St Albans are in the Conference South and it will be a full season apparently. Unsure if that means March or April start though. 7 clubs have confirmed their membership and the RFL will run with that many (they have no choice as there's no league for at least 4 of the clubs otherwise). So as long as there's no late dropouts that's sorted.

The reason for the delay is the RFL want an 8th team and there is a possible option.

St Albans are in the Conference South and it will be a full season apparently. Unsure if that means March or April start though. 7 clubs have confirmed their membership and the RFL will run with that many (they have no choice as there's no league for at least 4 of the clubs otherwise). So as long as there's no late dropouts that's sorted.

The reason for the delay is the RFL want an 8th team and there is a possible option.

Thank you Bowes, would be nice if the governing body kept us up to date as much as you do

St Albans are in the Conference South and it will be a full season apparently. Unsure if that means March or April start though. 7 clubs have confirmed their membership and the RFL will run with that many (they have no choice as there's no league for at least 4 of the clubs otherwise). So as long as there's no late dropouts that's sorted.

The reason for the delay is the RFL want an 8th team and there is a possible option.

I think it's April, and if I'm remembering correctly, there's a 2 week break in the Summer, though I may be getting my leagues mixed up